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Making Training Quiz Games More Effective

By Gary Trotta, Training Games, Inc.

Attention is a cognitive process. It is our attempt to focus on one thing while filtering out as much of the many other sensory stimuli that bombard us in each and every moment.

The most famous definition of attention comes from one of the first major psychologists, William James: "It is the taking possession by the mind in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought...It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others." (Principles of Psychology, 1890).

Focusing our attention is a difficult thing to do for any prolonged period of time, however absolutely essential to any attempt to learn. Most teachers and trainers know this first-hand. In fact, it is biologically impossible to learn information that our brains have not focused or paid attention to. Attention is therefore our gateway to learning.

Our brains actually operate in cycles of "High Attention" and "Downtime". The downtime is actually just as important to learning as attention. During this downtime, the brain engages in thinking, questioning, mulling over concepts in order to assimilate or accommodate information into new learning and understanding. In fact, if downtime is not provided (and new information continues to flow) the brain will begin to filter out, or relinquish attention for the new information, just so that it can begin processing the earlier or first-in information. This may help explain why our retention is so good for the first 10 minutes of a lecture, yet falls off to only 20 percent for the remainder of the presentation. A lengthy, data rich presentation allows the brain little time to think, to process and ultimately, to learn. It's like attempting to bake a cake by pouring the milk, flour, sugar and eggs into a bowl, but neglecting to stir the ingredients, or to place the mixture into the oven to bake. Many teachers and trainers are not aware of this.

Training Quiz Games can be used to capture class attention. They provide an environment that is emotionally charged and highly social, two elements (emotion/collaboration) which have been shown to be conducive for learning. Such games allow teams to compete while being introduced to learning questions. The experience is both interactive and engaging.

But what about the "downtime" needed to process learning as mentioned above? This is in deed important, and can also be introduced into a training game. Let's imagine that a game question asks what the connecting points within our brain’s neural network are called. The answer; "synapses". That's great, your team got it right, they’re excited, engaged, high fives all around. Now instead of moving on to the next fact-based question in the game the trainer instead takes some time-out to utilize this highly focused level of engagement to more thoroughly explore the question. Perhaps she asks the group a follow-up question, or presents other supportive data. Perhaps and collaborative exercise or gives a mini-presentation on the subject. Essentially giving class participants time to further discuss, process and consolidate the learning.

Training Games Inc. has carried this concept one step further by designing games that allow the trainer to easily embed pop-up questions, exercises, graphical slides and even mini-presentation into their Deluxe and Ultima Games. We believe that this idea of pulsing between content and participative interaction is in line with the way we learn. In this regard developing tools that facilitate this type of training can only improve our ability to learn.

Gary Trotta is CEO of Training Games, Inc. and has a Master's Degree in Human Resources and Organization Development from the University of San Francisco and a B.A. in Psychology from New York State University at Geneseo. He has over 26 years of experience in corporate training and various Corporate Management positions. He considers himself a "Trainer" above all else.